


Death in the pursuit of life

by ko_writes



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Alchemy, Gen, Heart Attacks, Malnutrition, Obsession, Starvation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 05:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5117948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ko_writes/pseuds/ko_writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Cauldron</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death in the pursuit of life

   They say that, through alchemy, one can find the elixir of life.

   Arthur Shappey is an alchemist who has lost his mind trying to find that sacred potion, spending his life in a small room with his cauldron and elements, minerals and herbs. He doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep until he collapses; he wastes his life in the pursuit of immortality, and the irony never occurs to his broken mind.

   He mixes his composition like a symphony of piano, strings and wind; the bravado waning, but still powerful enough for a standing ovation.

   His clothes hang loosely from his gaunt frame as skeletal fingers grasp a jar of stones from the stomach of a swallow chick.

   “One more, one more and I’m done…” He recites as a mantra, though never truly means it.

  Dark spots cloud his vision, but he blinks them away; it happens too often to concern him. He sways as he takes one, two, three of the revolting stones and throws them in the bubbling brew.

   “No… No, not now,” He mumbles.

   His heart pounds painfully in his chest, pain shooting down his arm. He feels sick.

   His sight fades with the pain and he falls, falls and will never get up again, into the potion and then, with the boiling, decaying body of a corrupted man; the elixir is complete.


End file.
